Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-09-12
DUTIES OF A HOST.
TIRE ELOQUENT DISCOURSE DELIVERED BY
DR.. TALNAGR, LAST SUNDAY.
The Trials and Rewards Of Christian Hospitality
Toll Of Exercising it---A Foreign Element
Introduced Into the Household Credit
for Services Rendered in His Name.
Special TsIemam to The Regis,er.

! Special Tslegram to The Register.
THE HAMPToNs, September 1.-THE
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmsges text to-day was
from Romans, ch. xii. v. 13' Given to
hospitality" and his Discourse as. .Ssllows:
There is danger that the number of large
and cOmmodious hotels in our towns, and
cities, and villages, will utterly extermin-
ate that grace which Abraham exhibited
when he entertained the angels, and
which Lot showed when he watched for
guests at the gate of the city. and which
Christ recognized as q apositive requisite
for entering heaven, when he declared:
~ was a stranger apd ye took Me in"
Propose to speak this morning of
the trials and rewards of Christian hospi.
tality. The first trial often comes in the
whim and eccentrici:y of the guest him.
self. There are great many excellent
people who have protuberances of DISPOSE
tion, and sharp edges of temperament, and
unpliability of character, which make
them a positive nuisance in any house
where they stay. On short acquaintance,
they will begin to command the house
hold affairs, order the employees to unusual
service, keep unreasonable hours, use mar
cotics in places offensive to sensitive nos
trils, put their feet at unusual elevations,
drop the ashes of their HAVANA on costly
tapestry, open bureaus they ought never
to touch, and pry into things they ought
never to sec, and become
IiPERvIOUs To HOUSING BELLS,
and have all the peculiarities of the gor-
mandizer or the dyspeptic, and make ex-
cavations from poor dentistry with unu-
sual implements, and in Thousand ways
afllict the household which proposes to
take care Of them. Added to all, they
stay too long. They have no idea when
their welcome is worn out, and they
wOuld be unmoved even by the blessing
which my friend Gerrit Smith, the philan-
thropist, asked one morning at his break
fast table, on the day when he hoped that
the long protracted guests would depart,
saying: 20 Lord, bless this provision, and
our friends who leave us to-day ~ But,
my friends there are alleviations to be
put on their side Of the scale Perhaps
they have not had the same refining inilu.
ences about them in early life that you
have had. Perhaps they have inherited
eccentricities that they cannot help. Per.
haps it is your duty, by example, to
show them a better way. Perhaps they
are sent to be a trial for the
development Of your patience. Perhaps
they were to I've intended as an illustration
of the opposite of what you are trying TO
incalCulate in the minds of your children.
Perhaps it is to make your home the
brighter when they are gone. When your
guests are CHEEKY, and fascinating, and
elegant, it is very easy to entertain them;
but when we find in our guests that which
is antagonistic to our taste and sentiment,
it is positive triumph when we can obey
the words of my text and be given TO
hospitality"
Another trial in the using of this grace
is in the toll and expense of exercising it.
In the well-regulated household things 90
smoothly, but now yOl have introduced
foreign element into the machinery, and
though you may stoutly declare that they
must take things as they find them, the
Martha will break in. The ungOvernable
stove. The ruined dessert. The Joint
that proves TO be unmastiCahle.
TUE Dgr AyFD MARKETING
The perplexities of a caterer. The diff
Guilty of doing proper work, and yet al
ways being prerentable. Though you may
say there shall be no care and anxiety,
there will be care and there will he
anxiety. In 1894 the captain-general pro-
vided very grand entertainment, and
among othOr things he had a fountain in
his garden-a fountain OF strong drink.
In it were four hogsheads Of brandy, eight
hngshead of water, twenty-five thousand
lemons, thirteen hundred weight of Lisbon
sugar. five pounds of grated nutmeg, three
hundred toasted buscuits, and a boat
built on purpose was placed in the foun-
tain and boy rowed around it, and filled
the cups of the people who came there TO
be supplied. Well, you say, that was a
luxurious entertainment, and of course
the man had no anxiety; but have to
tell you that though you had, or pro-
pose an entertainment like that, you have
anxiety. In that very thing comes
the Divine reward. We were born TO serve;
and when we serve others, we serve God.
The flush on that womans cheek, ~ she
bends over the hot stove, il as sacred in
Gods sight as the flush on the eLeek of
one who, ON hot day, breaches the Cos
pei. We may serve God with plate, and
cutlery, and broom, as certainly as we can
serve Him with psalm-boOk and liturgy.
Margaret, Queen of Norway, and Sweden,
and Denmark, had a royal cup of ten lips,
on which was recorded the names OF the
guests who had drunk from this cuD. And
every Christian woman has royal cup, on
which are written all the names of those
who have ever been entertained by her in
Christian style-names not cut by human
ingenuity, but written by the hand of a
Divine. Jesus But my friends, you are
not to toll unnecessarily. Though the
fare be plain, chseTfgl presidency of the
table, and cleanliness Of appointments will
he
GOOD ENOUGH FOB ANYBODY.
that ever comes to your house. John
Howard was invited 70 the house
of nobleman. He said 81 will
come on one condition, and that is that
you have nothing bnt potatoes on the
table" The requlsition was complied
with. Cyrus, king of Persia, under the
same circumstances, prescribed that on the
table there nust be nothing hut hread.
OF course, these were extremes, bat they
were illustrations OF the fact that more de-
pends upon the banquetters than on the
banquet. l want to lift this idea of
Christian entertainment out of a positive
bondage into a glorious inducement.
Every effort you put forth, and every
dollar You give to the entertainment of
friend or foe, you give directly to Christ.
Suppose it were announced that the Lord
Jesus Christ EeIe TO Coiae 10 this place
this week, what woman IN this house
would not be glad 10 wash for Him. or
spread for Him bed, OF bake bread for
Him? There was one of old who washed
for him, drawing the water from the well